DfT Bans Calling Cars Self-Driving From January 2027 With Two Year Prison Risk

• From 7 January 2027, the words self-driving, driverless, autonomous and drive itself can only be used to describe vehicles that the government has authorised under the Automated Vehicles Act 2024.
• The Department for Transport says a business prosecuted and convicted under the marketing offences faces a maximum of two years in prison, a fine, or both.
• The Automated Vehicles (Marketing Restrictions) Regulations 2026 cover England, Wales and Scotland, and ordinary driver assistance features are left alone.

Cars Without Government Authorisation Cannot Be Sold as Self-Driving From 7 January 2027

Car adverts that promise a vehicle “drives itself” have a fixed end date. The Automated Vehicles (Marketing Restrictions) Regulations 2026 come into force on 7 January 2027, and from that day a short list of words is reserved for vehicles that have passed the government’s authorisation process. Any other car described with them puts the seller on the wrong side of the law.

The Department for Transport laid the regulations before Parliament on 7 July 2026, alongside its response to a consultation on protecting marketing terms. Transport minister Simon Lightwood told MPs the aim is to stop drivers in Great Britain being misled into thinking a vehicle that is not authorised can safely and lawfully drive itself. The date is written into the regulations themselves, so this is a confirmed future change rather than a proposal.

What Changes for Drivers Shopping for a New Car

Most drivers will never read a statutory instrument. They will read a showroom brochure, a manufacturer website or a dealer advert. That is where the change lands. Today a company can describe a driver assistance system with almost any words it likes. From January, the strongest claims are locked to vehicles that have earned them.

The countdown is short. From 30 September 2026 there are 99 days until the rules apply, which means car makers, dealers and advertisers have the new year to rewrite anything that still uses the restricted words. The regulations extend to England, Wales and Scotland. They do not mention Northern Ireland, so buyers there should not assume the same protection applies.

Under the Automated Vehicles Act 2024, a vehicle can only be authorised if it can drive itself safely and legally without a human controlling or monitoring it. That is a far higher bar than the high-end driver assistance systems the department refers to, which still need the driver watching the road at all times. The regulations do not change that.

The department’s own statement spells out the risk. Misleading marketing, it says, can lead drivers to believe they do not need to pay attention to the road. As more manufacturers offer high-end driver assistance, it warns, misleading claims risk making road safety worse. The new rules are aimed at that gap between what an advert implies and what the car can actually do.

The Eight Words Only Authorised Vehicles Can Use

Regulation 2 lists the restricted terms. Each of these describes a vehicle that must be authorised or listed under the Act before the word is used:

• automated
• automated driving
• autonomous
• autonomous driving
• drive autonomously
• drive itself
• driverless
• self-driving

The protection covers other grammatical forms of each term, so changing a word from “drives itself” to “driving itself” does not get round it. The words “automated” and “autonomous” get a narrower rule. They are only restricted when used to describe a vehicle as a whole, or its overall driving capability. A car can still advertise automated windscreen wipers or autonomous emergency braking, as those describe one feature rather than the whole vehicle.

That carve-out keeps ordinary feature descriptions legal. Autonomous emergency braking and automated windscreen wipers are both named in the government’s own statement as permitted uses, so brochures can keep describing them.

Two Offences and a Two Year Prison Term

The regulations work alongside two offences already written into the 2024 Act. Section 78 covers the protected terms. Section 79 is a wider confusion offence, which catches marketing that is likely to make people think an unauthorised vehicle can drive itself, even when it avoids the protected words.

The second offence is the catch-all for terms outside the list. Consultation respondents asked for more terms to be banned, including “robotaxi” and “AI driver”. The government chose not to add them to the list. It says those phrases will be dealt with under the confusion offence instead, and that it will keep the list under review, with the possibility of protecting further terms in future.

The Act places a duty on the Secretary of State for Transport to enforce the marketing offences. The department expects its agencies to do this through civil powers under Schedule 5 to the Act. Where a breach ends in prosecution and conviction, the Act sets the maximum penalty at two years in prison, a fine, or both. The statement does not put a figure on the fine, and it does not say how often prosecution is expected. The two year term is a ceiling, not a typical outcome.

What Drivers and Buyers Should Do

Nothing in these regulations changes what a driver must do behind the wheel. A car that is not authorised as self-driving still needs a driver who is paying attention, and the driver remains responsible for it. The new rules aim to stop an advert from suggesting otherwise.

Buyers can use the January date as a checklist. Read the small print on any driver assistance pack, and ask the dealer whether the vehicle is authorised or listed under the Automated Vehicles Act 2024. If a brochure or website still uses one of the eight restricted words about a car with no such status after 7 January 2027, that is the kind of claim the new rules were written for.

The driverless taxi rules that took effect earlier this year sit on the other side of the same system. Passenger services need a permit before they can carry the public, and we covered how that works in Driverless Taxis and Buses Can Now Operate on UK Roads With No Driver. The marketing regulations protect the words that describe those vehicles, and the permits control who can operate them.

Drivers who rely on their cars’ cameras and sensors for everyday safety features also have reason to know what those systems are. The cost of repairing them is a separate issue, covered in A Cracked Windscreen Can Now Cost UK Drivers Up to £1,000 in Camera Fees.

What Is Still Undecided

The government says some respondents wanted further guidance on the misleading marketing provisions in Part 4 of the Act, and that it will look at developing supporting materials. A wider programme of education, research and review is also being looked at. No dates have been given for either.

The regulations do not say how many companies currently use the restricted words in ways that would breach the rule, and the department has not published an estimate. What the documents do confirm is the start date, the list of terms, the scope across England, Wales and Scotland, and the maximum penalty on conviction. Everything beyond that, including how quickly the department’s agencies will act once the rules start, is still to be seen.

For now, the practical message is short. On 7 January 2027 the phrase “self-driving” stops being a marketing choice and becomes a legal status. Until a car has that status, the seller is not allowed to say it.

Keep a screenshot or copy of any advert that promises a car will drive itself. If the same claim is still live after 7 January 2027, the record shows what was promised and when, and it gives you something concrete to raise with the seller.

Sources

Department for Transport and Simon Lightwood MP, Protecting marketing terms for automated vehicles, GOV.UK written statement, 7 July 2026.

UK Parliament, Government Response and Statutory Instrument on Protecting Marketing Terms for Automated Vehicles, statement HCWS196, 7 July 2026.

legislation.gov.uk, The Automated Vehicles (Marketing Restrictions) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/733).